Bead feeder

ABSTRACT

A bead feeder serially delivering beads to a downstream location comprises a bead supply wheel connected to rotate about a vertical axis. The bead supply wheel includes a bead supply bowl and a plurality of radially and outwardly extending bead passageway connected to rotate with the bowl and dimensioned to receive a single line of beads. A plurality of openings in the bead supply bowl is spaced around a lower portion thereof with the openings in alignment with the radially and outwardly extending passageways each of which has an outer exit end. A metering plate is connected to rotate about the same vertical axis as the bead supply wheel, and metering plate has a plurality of equally spaced apart openings directly below the outer ends of the passageways for receiving the lowermost beads in the passageways. The metering plate rotates at a slightly slower or slightly faster speed than the bead supply wheel so that vertical alignment of an outer exit end of a particular passageway and an opening in the metering plate only occurs once for each revolution of the bead supply wheel. A drop off is provided for the removal of beads away from the metering plate.

CROSS REFERENCE RELATED TO APPLICATION

The present application claims the benefit of provisional applicationSer. No. 60/992,506, filed Dec. 5, 2007, for all useful purposes, andthe specification and drawings thereof are included herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to bead feeder, and more particularly to amachine the feeds generally spherical beads from a bulk supply to adownstream location such as the interior space of a plug-space-plugcigarette filter during filter production.

A variety of cigarette filters have been proposed over the years, andmany of these filters include granular filter materials particularly inso-called plug-space-plug filter arrangements. In these filterarrangements spaced apart plugs, usually made of cellulose acetate,define a cavity or space therebetween which is filled with granulatedmaterial, such as granulated carbon as well as other materials. Forexample, beaded material has also been proposed for introduction intothe space of a plug-space-plug filter arrangement. The actual filing ofthe space may be in a horizontal manner and in other instances thefilling operation is vertically oriented. Also, as an alternative to acharge of granules or beads, larger beads may be fed to the spacebetween the cellulose acetate plugs, with one bead introduced into eachspace or cavity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, one of the objects of the present invention is a beadfeeder that functions to serially delivery beads from a bulk supply to adownstream location in a highly efficient manner.

Another object of the present invention is a bead feeder that transportsbeads from a bulk supply to a space or cavity in a cigarette filterduring filter production.

Still another object of the present invention is a bead feeder whichoperates at a high speed in a simple and trouble free manner.

In accordance with the present invention, a bead feeder comprises a beadsupply wheel connected to rotate about a substantially vertical axis.The bead supply wheel includes a bead supply bowl that delivers beads toa plurality of radially arranged and outwardly extending transferpassageways connected to rotate with the bowl. The bowl includes aplurality of discharge openings spaced around a lower portion thereofand each opening is in alignment with one of radially and outwardlyextending passageways. The passageways guide the beads one after anotherin a line in a downstream direction.

The bead feeder further includes a feed plate positioned directly belowthe outer exit ends of the passageways for receiving a lowermost beadfrom the single line of beads in each passageway. The feed plateincludes a plurality of pockets or openings for receiving the beads, andthe feed plate is connected to rotate with the bead supply wheel at thesame rotational speed.

A metering plate is positioned directly below the feed plate, and themetering plate rotates about the same vertical axis as the bead supplywheel and the feed plate. Openings in the metering plate receive beadsfrom the pockets or openings of the feed plate. The metering platerotates slightly slower or slightly faster than the feed plate so thatalignment and transfer of beads into the openings of the metering wheelonly occurs once for each opening and each revolution of the feed plate.Discharge of a bead from its respective opening in the metering plateoccurs at a transfer point, along the path of travel of the meteringplate.

A bead transfer wheel may be provided to receive the beads from themetering plate. The transfer wheel rotates on a horizontal axis, andspaced apart pockets on the outer circumference of the wheel receive thebeads from the metering plate as they fall away at the transfer point ofthe metering wheel. Vacuum may be used to draw and hold the beads in thepockets of the transfer wheel until the beads are released from thewheel.

In one application on the present invention, a moving garniture is inalignment with and directly below the bead transfer wheel. The garnituretransports filter paper with equally spaced apart plugs on the paper,and the downstream location to which the beads are delivered comprisesthe spaces or cavities between the plugs. The bead transfer wheelfunctions to deliver a single bead to each such cavity. A stationarystripper adjacent the bead transfer wheel functions to assist in removalof the beads from the wheel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Novel features and advantages of the present invention in addition tothose mentioned above will be readily apparent to persons of ordinaryskill in the art from a reading of the following detailed description inconjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein similar referencecharacters refer to similar parts and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bead feeder, in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 2A is a sectional view taken along line 2A-2A of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring in more particularity to the drawings, FIGS. 1, 2 and 2Aillustrate a bead feeder 10 for serially delivering beads 12 to adownstream location. As explained more fully below such downstreamlocation may be the space or cavity between spaced apart celluloseacetate plugs in the production of so-called plug-space-plug cigarettefilters. Throughout the detailed description the term bead is utilizedwhich is intended to include spherical configurations as well asspherically ended components.

The bead feeder 10 of the present invention comprises a bead supplywheel 14 connected to rotate about a substantially vertical axis 16. Thebead supply wheel includes a bead supply bowl 18 and a plurality ofradially and outwardly extended tubes or bead passageways 20 connectedto rotate with the bowl 18 and dimensioned to receive a single line ofbeads from the bowl. A plurality of discharge openings 22 in the beadsupply bowl 18 are spaced around the lower portion of the bowl with theopenings 22 in alignment with the radially and outwardly passageways 20.Each of the passageways 20 has an outer exit end 24. A stationary brush25 may be positioned within the bowl 18 to mix the beads 12.

A feed plate 26 is positioned directly below the outer exit ends 24 ofthe passageways 20 for receiving a lowermost bead 12 from the singleline of beads in each passageway. The lowermost bead 12 in eachpassageway is received within pockets 28 in the feed plate, and theplate is connected to rotate with the bead supply wheel 14 at the samerotational speed.

A metering plate 30 is positioned directly below the feed plate 26, andthe metering plate also rotates about the vertical axis 16. The meteringplate 30 includes a plurality of openings 32 equally spaced apart in acircle directly below the pockets of the feed plate with an equal numberof pockets 28 and openings 32. However, the metering plate 30 isconnected to rotate at a slightly slower or slightly faster speed thanthe feed plate 26 so that vertical alignment of a pocket 28 with anopening 32 only occurs once during each revolution of the feed plate.That point of alignment is shown in FIG. 2 where the lowermost bead 12in one pocket of the feed plate drops into an aligned opening 32 of themetering plate. The point of vertical alignment between a pocket 28 andopening 32 occurs about 10° to 30° before the bead is removed from themetering plate.

Each opening 32 of the metering plate is sized to receive a single bead,and vacuum 33 may be supplied to the opening to assist in the transferfrom the feed plate. Otherwise the beads in the pockets of the feedplate engage the surface of the metering plate 30 between successiveopenings until the next alignment of the pocket 28 with an opening 32after approximately one full rotation of the feed plate. As explainedabove, such alignment may occur slightly before a transfer of beads awayfrom the metering plate 30, about 10° to 30° before the transfer point.

A stationary dead plate 34 is positioned directly below metering plate30 and the beads already in the openings 32 of the metering plate rollalong or otherwise engage the dead plate as the metering plate rotatesabout the vertical axis 16. The dead plate includes a drop-off at thetransfer point of beads away from the metering plate through which thebeads in the openings 32 drop for subsequent delivery of the beads to adownstream location. This position is shown in FIG. 2A. If vacuum 33 isapplied to the openings 32 to assist in transfer of the beads from thefeed plate 26 and to hold the beads within the openings 32, the vacuumis vented to atmosphere at the drop-off.

The bead feeder 10 also includes a bead transfer wheel 36 below the deadplate 34 connected to rotate about a substantially horizontal axis 38.The transfer wheel 36 includes equally spaced apart exterior pockets 40on the circumferences of the wheel for receiving beads 12 from themetering plate 30 as they fall through the drop-off in the dead plate34. The dead plate is notched-out to receive the upper portion of thetransfer wheel, and at the bead transfer point shown in FIG. 2A, theouter surface of the transfer wheel is at the same elevation as topsurface of the dead plate and the lower surface of the metering plate.

Vacuum may be connected to selected pockets 40 to effect deposit of thebeads into the pockets and ultimate removal from the bead transferwheel.

In one application of the present invention a moving garniture 42 of amachine for producing cigarette filters is in alignment with anddirectly below the bead transfer wheel 36. The garniture 42 functions totransport filter paper 44 with equally spaced apart plugs 46 on thepaper. Alternatively, the plugs 46 could be unevenly spaced apart, andin that case the delivery wheel pitch would be designed to synchronizewith the cavities between the plugs. The plugs 44 may be made ofcellulose acetate with appropriate binder, but other plug materials areequally acceptable depending upon the desired cigarette filterconstruction. The downstream location to which the beads 12 aredelivered by the bead transfer wheel 36 of the bead feeder 10 comprisecavities or spaces 48 between the plugs 46. Ultimately after a bead isinserted into a cavity 48, the garniture functions to close the filterpaper around the plugs and the beads, and after sealing the paper withadhesive along the longitudinal edges thereof the continuous filtercomposite is cut into individual plug-space-plug filters which aresubsequently joined to wrapped tobacco rods.

A stationary stripper 50 may be positioned as shown in FIG. 1 adjacentthe bead transfer wheel 18. The stripper is constructed and arranged toremove beads 12 from the pockets 40 of the bead transfer wheel 36.Additionally, the stripper may function to interrupt the vacuum supplyto the pockets 40 to assist in removal of the beads from the pockets anddischarge thereof into the cavities 48. A single bead is delivered toeach of the cavities.

Any suitable drive mechanism may be utilized to rotate the bead supplywheel 13 and the bead transfer wheel 36. Also, the drive mechanismfunctions to rotate the metering plate at a slightly faster or slowerspeed than the bead supply wheel 14, for the reasons discussed above.

1. A bead feeder for serially delivering beads to a downstream locationcomprising: a bead supply wheel connected to rotate about asubstantially vertical axis; the bead supply wheel including a beadsupply bowl and a plurality of radially and outwardly extending beadpassageways connected to rotate with the bowl and dimensioned to receivea single line of beads from the bowl; a plurality of discharge openingsin the bead supply bowl spaced around a lower portion thereof with theopenings in alignment with the radially and outwardly extendingpassageways; each of the passageways having an outer exit end; ametering plate connected to rotate about the same vertical axis as thebead supply wheel; the metering plate having a plurality of equallyspaced apart openings directly below the outer exit ends of thepassageways for receiving the lowermost beads in the passageways; themetering plate rotating at a slightly slower or slightly faster speedthan the bead supply wheel so that vertical alignment of an outer exitend of a particular passageway and an opening in the metering plate onlyoccurs once for each revolution of the bead supply wheel; a beadtransfer point for removal of beads away from the metering plate; and abead transfer wheel positioned below the bead transfer point andconnected to rotate about a substantially horizontal axis, the transferwheel having spaced apart exterior pockets on circumferential portionsthereof for receiving the beads from the metering plate.
 2. The beadfeeder of claim 1, including a moving garniture in alignment with anddirectly below the transfer wheel; the garniture transporting filterpaper with equally spaced apart plugs on the paper; and wherein thedownstream locations to which the beads are delivered comprise cavitiesbetween the plugs.
 3. The bead feeder of claim 2 wherein the transferwheel is constructed and arranged to deliver a single bead to eachcavity.
 4. The bead feeder of claim 1, including a stationary stripperadjacent the bead transfer wheel constructed and arranged to removebeads from the bead transfer wheel at the downstream location.
 5. Amethod of serially delivering beads to a downstream location comprising:rotating a bead supply wheel about a substantially vertical axis,whereby the rotating step includes rotating a bead supply bowl and aplurality of radially and outwardly extending bead passageways connectedto rotate with the bowl; delivering a single line of beads through aplurality of discharge openings in the bead supply bowl spaced around alower portion thereof while maintaining the openings in alignment withthe radially and outwardly extending bead passageways; seriallypositioning the lowermost bead in each passageway into one of aplurality of openings in a rotating metering plate; rotating themetering plate slightly slower or slightly faster than the rotationalspeed of the bead passageways so that vertical alignment of thelowermost bead in a particular passageway and one of the plurality ofopenings in the metering plate only occurs once for each revolution ofthe passageways; dropping the beads in the metering plate away from themetering plate; and rotating a bead transfer wheel about a substantiallyhorizontal axis constructed such that beads dropping from the meteringplate are received by the transfer wheel and serially delivered to thedownstream location.